Three Reedville Elementary students get help from two Brown Middle School students during an after-school coding class. All Reedville students, from both Spanish- and English-speaking backgrounds, learn in both languages in the school's dual language program. Becoming bilingual gives them a leg up on college and careers, but can mean they master writing later than monolingual children.
(Michael Thompson / The Argus)

Dual language learners work equally hard to gain and show mastery of reading, writing and listening in two languages, usually English and Spanish, as other students devote just to English.

But the Smarter Balanced test will count proficiency only in English. And unlike the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or OAKS, test, Smarter Balanced requires students to write out many of their answers, in either short phrases or long, multiple-paragraph responses.

"What we want is for any type of state-level test to be a way that kids really get to show what they know," said Reedville Principal Robin Farup-Romero. For students learning in two languages, "The tests don't always afford that opportunity," she said.

Writing proficiently in a second language is typically the last skill that language learners master, even after they learn to understand what they hear and read and learn to speak it. So Reedville students, particularly in grades three and four, may get hung up trying to fully express in writing what they know.

"Typically we see students more comfortable expressing through oral language" first, with writing proficiency coming later, Farup-Romero said.

Smarter Balanced test scores are important, but they are only one way that Reedville educators will measure student growth and show parents and the public how much Reedville students are learning, she said.

"We will keep fighting to show that our kids in two languages really do develop high levels of literacy and math," she said. "Our teachers are amazing."

The school's year-over-year growth for students in reading was off the charts great during the past school year, she said.

Reedville educators agree with Common Core standards and the rigorous expectations of the Smarter Balanced test, Farup-Romero said. They want students to be able to read passages from above their grade level and make sense of them, and to draw from multiple subjects to write opinions supported by facts.

"There are good things about Common Core," she said. "It raises the rigor of how teachers can think about instruction. But we also have to keep perspective and know who our kids are.

"We give our students positive social experiences and equip them with two languages and an understandings of the world around them," not just the skills on the Smarter Balanced test. "It is a little bit of a dance keeping it all in balance.

"As long as we can show other examples of their growth and give context ... parents will remain in this with us."